University Affairs

One of the biggest stumbling blocks many PhDs seem to face when seriously considering a non-academic path is the fear that they will find themselves in a position that they could have gotten without a PhD. This is a prime example of what I’ve dubbed the “bragability factor” which is an insidious influence on the decision-making capabilities of exceptionally smart people.

Definition of the “bragability factor”: the pressure experienced by people who’ve shown great potential to always be progressing in a manner befitting of what everyone expects of them. Left unchecked, it is the fear of not maintaining this “bragability quotient” that can lead to “imposter syndrome”. This is an unfortunate ailment that seems to plague the very people deemed least likely to suffer from such insecurities.

For a successful new academic considering non-academic options, there is a tacit imperative to maintain their “bragability quotient” at least at the level they established while doing their PhD. This is where they scored the big research awards and enjoyed a certain degree of publishing success. However, without any directly relevant experience in a field outside their own academic program, it is quite possible that their first job might feel more like a demotion than an opportunity.

What is required is a reframing of the situation, which is provided compliments of Basalla and Debeluis. They point out that an initial job in a new field should be thought of as more of a paid internship, rather than on par with a tenure-track position. Regardless of your intelligence or your potential, you will need time to learn the ropes. And it is quite possible that at this stage you could be working in tandem with colleagues similar to your students. But think about it from Basalla & Debeluis’s perspective – how hard would it be for you to outshine any of your students in an otherwise equal playing field? After taking the time to acclimatize to your new context, and to demonstrate your abilities to your new employers, it will not take long for you to catapult quite impressively into your new field.

If you are starting a non-academic job, you can ensure that you progress as quickly as possible by requesting regular performance reviews every three months during your first year, with the possibility of promotion and/or salary increase should these be favourable. But do keep in mind that this may not be common practice at every company. However, if they are offering you a position, they will be anxious for you to accept: you are the one they want, and that gives you some negotiation power. In most cases, they will want to ensure you stay with the organization for the long term, so they will be as anxious as you are to pass through the training stage as quickly as possible.

Leaving academe can be a daunting prospect but, as many PhDs will attest, rewarding in the long term. Try not to let the fear of a short term plateau in your path dissuade you from pursuing an otherwise attractive option. You will discover how good you really are relative to the general population once you get established, and by then, a few months in “internship” mode won’t seem so significant.

A couple of weeks ago, I posted a piece on ensuring the quality of your reference letters when you’re applying for academic positions. This week I’d like to address the issue of asking for references when you are applying outside academe. This can be a difficult process for both you and your referees – particularly if neither of you have much or any experience in the non-academic workforce.

Unlike academe, non-academic job references are usually given over the phone. Typically, the applicant will be asked to provide at least two references, usually after the first, or in some cases second, interview. Here are a few tips that can help you select and prepare your referees so they can provide the strongest support possible.

• Do your research – Make sure you research the organization to which you are applying – their mandate, priorities and reputation. Also, make sure you thoroughly read the posting for which you are applying in terms of the job functions and how these converge with the qualifications required. This will help you identify who can best speak on your behalf.
• Select your referees strategically – The strongest referees can speak specifically and positively about how well-suited you are for a given position. While your committee members may be most familiar with your recent research activities, you will need to decide whether they can adequately discuss other capabilities you have that may be relevant. If not, it would be prudent to cull appropriate referees from outside academe to help round out your list of references. If that’s not realistic, consider asking a faculty member or university administrator who can speak about your non-research activities. Here are a few questions to keep in mind as you select your referees:
• How supportive is this person of my decision to leave academe?
• Is this person knowledgeable about the position/field/organization to which I am applying?
• Can this person be easily understood on the telephone?
• Will this person be readily available to do phone interviews?
• Support your referees during the process – This point is the same for non-academic job searches as for academic ones. Ensure you provide your referees with the details of the position as well as copies of your CV or resumé. It can be helpful to write down specific aspects of your research activities, knowledge or skills that are most closely related to each position. It is also courteous to keep your referees updated on your progress.

Recognizing the differences between academic and non-academic recruitment processes will help you not only identify who would be best able to describe your strengths to a prospective employer, but ensure they have the information and support they need to do so.

A reader sent me a link to an article recently published by his supervisor, Jonathan Sterne, in the Journal of Communication Critical/Cultural Studies, “The Pedagogy of the Job Market” (6: 4, 421 – 424). This article should be required reading for all graduate supervisors.

His main point is the status of the academic job market in general is not a holy quest nor is a tenured position in a large research university the Holy Grail of academe (my metaphor). He goes on to offer seven principles to realign the position of the academic job market in graduate education and admonishes graduate supervisors for perpetuating this myth. He calls on them to be as critical of their own occupational environments as they are of any other human institution.

This last point of Sterne’s is the closest I have ever heard an academic admit that this profession has a dysfunctional relationship with the term ‘career’ even when it refers to their own – some might say ‘especially’ here.

As a person who has spent more than 20 years in a university setting – 12 years in grad school (MA, ABD and PhD in progress) and 12 years in a university career centre, I have frequently run head-on into the unacknowledged prejudice of all-things-career-related which seems to permeate academe.

I have to be very careful how I introduce myself, or how I describe my background when I speak to academics, because as soon as I use the ‘c’ word, I can see the blinders go on, the frozen stare that says “I’m pretending to listen – but I’ve already made up my mind” and then they quickly change the topic. There is no glimmer of intellectual curiosity, no spark of recognition in a shared sphere of professional interest; nothing to suggest that anything someone for the ‘career’ centre could be involved in might in anyway be relevant to academe at all. In fact there are more than a few professors who would be much happier if career centres simply disassociated from universities altogether. Honestly, I’m not overstating this (too much).

At first I was just plain offended. But it happens so predictably that I’ve come to accept it as one of the great idiosyncrasies of universities. They will unabashedly recruit students by the thousands with allusions to high-status careers, but once said recruits arrive, they are fed misinformation, or no information about the likelihood of realizing their career dreams. To insert any connection between course content and it’s relevancy outside the ivory tower is unilaterally avoided.

Many professors aren’t at all sure where their universities’ career centres are, let alone, what they can do for students. I’m constantly astounded how out of touch faculty members are at universities across the country when it comes to understanding the roles of career centres their own campuses.

Historically, career centres were ‘placement centres’ and were essentially branches of the Department of Labour with the primary task of helping war veterans reintegrate to the workforce after upgrading their educations at university. But that was over half a century ago, and things have changed no less radically in career centres than in the rest of society during that time.

Here is my challenge: if you haven’t yet, seek out your university career centre – online and physically. Feel free to ask them about their philosophy of career development and how that impacts their practice. You may well find their programs and services to be much more grounded in theory and research than you ever suspected.

In the meantime, share Jonathan Sterne’s homepage with grad student who don’t have quite as enlightened supervisors as he obviously is. Thank you Jeremy for sharing Sterne’s article with me – I hope you appreciate how lucky you are!

Happy New Years folks!

I hope you all had a relaxing break. I, unfortunately, spent a good chunk of my holidays writing a paper – sound familiar?

I’ve been reading all sorts of synopses of 2009, and they all seem focused on the gloom and doom of the economic downturn (or ‘crisis’ if you are in the States). Of course, those of you in the job market, or about to be, know all about that.

It seems unproductive to start this New Year with the emotional baggage of its less than stellar predecessor. Instead, I’ve been trying to think up ways to re-frame things to focus more on what opportunities may now be more realistic, even preferable to attempting to find a tenure track position this year. Here’s what I came up with:

1. Taking another year to finish your dissertation at a more leisurely pace. Many Ivy League universities are actually facilitating this option with innovative funding options like internship and bursaries. Talk to your dean and/or supervisor about this – imagine, not panicking at bedtime!
2. Conference with abandon rather than worrying about finishing the dissertation in a few months! Go to fun places, but concentrate your energies on papers that have publishing potential so when the academic job market eases up, you’ll be more competitive than ever.
3. Take a ‘gap year’. I know these are something younger students are encouraged to do, but if you think about, many grad students would benefit from having a year away from academe to reconsider their options, while exploring new ones. Of course there is the financial aspect, but if you don’t have a family to feed, it might be one of the last times you be able to hit the high road just because!
4. If getting away from academe for a year is unrealistic in your situation, at least take some time to seriously investigate your non-academic options – preferably with the support of a career counselor or advisor experienced with grad students. That way if things don’t improve quickly enough for you, you will have an idea of what your next steps might be.
5. Learning a potentially useful, or at least fun, skill. This diversionary tactic could open your eyes to a whole aspect of yourself you had forgotten about, or never knew existed. You will be surprised how much you enjoy doing something, anything, that does not involve research, or academic writing. It can be downright invigorating if not enlightening!

There will be so many incredibly well prepared candidates who will be struggling during this time period, that your ‘unconventional’ academic timeline will hardly be the anomaly that it might have been in the past.

At the very least, having a little time to reflect on where you’ve been, and where you’re going may well make your next steps more clear. Now doesn’t that sound like a good way to start a new year!

Have you been watching the videos that have been posted from this year’s Career Corner at Congress? For those of you who didn’t make it to Ottawa, this is your chance to see and hear from some of the experts in academic career issues who spoke this year.

The other day, I was listening to David Ainsworth’s talk on career in the United Nations for PhDs. He’s quite a good speaker, and his talk is full of useful advice for PhDs longing for a career in this field. In the first clip of this talk, “Does my graduate degree matter?” Ainsworth emphasizes the need to carefully select the subject of one’s thesis. Hmmm – strategic thesis choosing – now there’s a Pandora’s Box of possibilities. (Text continues below)

At a time when there so much dissention over the status of tenure in the university system, and the supposed protection it affords scholars from the infiltration of market influences and other agendas on the ‘pure’ pursuit of knowledge, Ainsworth’s comment bears a second take. He promotes a pragmatic approach: “Designing your thesis on a topic of relevancy to a particular agency” [is a good way to prepare for a career in the UN].

But, one wonders, what if the premise or the findings of said research are critical of the UN mandate? Perhaps what is really being promoted is not so much expert knowledge of a relevant topic but also a diplomatic avoidance of irritating one’s future employer. All of a sudden pragmatism is sounding a little more sinister.

Of course, it could be argued, one is unlikely to want to work for an organization with skeletons in the proverbial boardroom, but that begs the question. It also runs far from of the point Ainsworth was trying to make. But nonetheless it deserves consideration, particularly in a hostile job market.

If you want to make sure you can transition out of academic reasonably seamlessly, either by choice or necessity, it would seem reasonable to suggest that having expertise in relevant areas would get you farther than the converse. Even in academe, some dissertation topics can be more desirable or less impressive than others under the scrutiny of selection committees.

It seems to be more a question of degree rather than of absolutes. How far can you let the priorities of your desired job market (academic or not) preside over your dissertation research before you cross the line dividing pragmatism from ingratiation?

How about you? If you knew that a particular topic was more likely to be viewed favourably by a prospective employer – academic or alternative – would you feel justified in pursuing that topic even if you really would have preferred a different direction, methodology, or emphasis?

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I came across an excellent video I thought I’d send your way this week. It’s a talk the Susan Basalla gave at Syracuse University on getting ready for the many options you can explore with a graduate degree.

Basalla, along with Maggie Debelius wrote “So What Are You Going to Do With That?: A Guide for M.A.’s and PhD’s Seeking Careers Outside the Academy”. This is a ‘must read’ for anyone considering ‘expanded options’ outside academe. It’s based on two years of research and hundreds of interviews with students, faculty and administrators.

Her video lasts over an hour but I thought I’d give you my comments on her 5 ‘don’ts’ to give you the gist of her approach.

• Don’t mistake your dissertation for your greatest accomplishment – Most of the value of your dissertation outside of academe will come from the skills and qualities you used throughout the process of writing it, not from the content or final product. Remember that when writing your résumé.
• Don’t depend on classified ads – Job searching in the knowledge economy outside academe is a radically different dynamic than inside where postings are de rigueur. People will always hire someone they know or who has been recommended to them before sifting through hundreds of résumés (if they have a choice in the matter) – wouldn’t you?
• Don’t underestimate the value of your non-academic pursuits – In spite of the pressure you will feel to ‘finish in a timely manner’ don’t forget what you care about outside academe. When you are finished, you will be saner if you have had an outlet to remember who you are when you are not being ‘an academic’. You will also be surprised at how often those ‘irrelevant’ activities end up launching you in a terrific career direction – read Basalla’s book for many examples of this.
• Don’t be afraid to start at entry level – especially if you have little or no experience. Learn the ropes, prove yourself and then get ready to catapult. Heck – you’ve been living off of TAships and maybe a scholarship or two for years – at least you’ll be making more than that while you go through this phase. Believe me, things move a LOT more quickly in the private sector – and no one will ask you to write a book to get promoted!
• Don’t try to figure it all out at once – Basalla suggests 3 month windows to reach achievable milestones. Makes sense especially if you are still writing. If you are already in the process of severing the bonds with academe, you may need to get a short term job to pay the bills while you start transitioning. Don’t panic, this is a strategic and temporary state of affairs. You are starting down a path you’ve never seen before. Give yourself a chance to let things unfold. You don’t know how good you are yet, and once you realize this you will wonder what kept you inside the ivory tower for so long.

I’m going to switch gears a bit this week, based on a conversation I overheard recently between a TA and an undergrad, who was one of her students. The TA had been talking about Congress and the value of academic associations in learning more about a field of study, and the student mentioned that she belonged to the student chapter of the professional association for human resources managers.

The TA expressed surprise that there was that sort of resource outside the traditional professions: doctors, lawyers, and teachers. That’s when I realized that many PhDs, although otherwise more knowledgeable than most people about many topics, generally have little knowledge of the world of work outside of academe. So I thought this week I’d introduce the wonderful world of professional associations to those of you interested in exploring non-academic career paths.

Professional associations exist for almost any occupation you can imagine. The 2009 edition of Associations Canada, a directory of national, provincial and regional associations, registered charities, nonprofits, has over 20,000 entries. Just like in academe, what associations do, and how they do it varies quite widely. But for the most part, all professional associations have the same core mandate: to provide a common source information exchange, professional development and networking opportunities for its members. Some associations also have a regulatory function as well and oversee the standards, designations and education of people publicly representing that association.

As mentioned, some associations have student chapters to provide opportunities for people not yet practicing in a field. Some also host panel discussions and guest speakers which are occasionally open to the public. Many associations also provide targeted job postings to their members, which employers in the field appreciate because it minimizes the amount of inappropriate applications they receive compared with more publicly available sites.

I remember considering a career in technical writing at one point so I attended a presentation hosted by the Society for Technical Communication just to listen to what was considered innovative and interesting in that field. I learned a lot that evening about the types of people in the field, common issues and trends, and got a good sense of whether this was a direction I would be interested in pursuing further. Clearly I was not, and that evening was pivotal in me making that decision by providing a level of insight that I never would have had access to otherwise.

If you are interested in doing a little shopping around for possible career alternatives, or have a career goal, but have no contacts in that field, going through lists of professional associations can be a good place to start. Your can check out your university career centre for the Associations Canada directory – it’s a standard resource. You can also browse through the list of national professional organizations listed on the Canadian Information Centre for International Credentials site. 

By using all those data collecting skills you’ve acquired over the years, you’ll be able to gather a remarkable amount of information and resources in very little time and get a point of reference even in fields where you have no history or contacts.

I’ve been attending a few sessions by various governmental departments recently, and I’m struck by the change a couple of years can make. One of the few employers that actually pay higher salaries to employees with higher education, the federal government seems to finally be acknowledging that graduate students, across a broad range of fields, have valuable contributions to make to Canadian society, and is developing programs and career paths to attract them to public service.

A few of these opportunities for graduate students in the government have crossed my desk, so I thought I’d pass them on to all of you.

The first one is the Fall 2009 Recruitment of Policy Leaders (RPL). This is open to Master’s and Doctoral level students who “want to make a contribution to public service after a proven record of success” while demonstrating ‘exceptional’ leadership skills in both academic and volunteer contexts.

They seem to be most interested in folks graduating December 2010 with policy interests in economic, political, legal, social, or scientific fields.

The submission deadline is coming up fast – October 19^th, 2009. If you want to know more, check out the site: http://jobs-emplois.gc.ca/index-eng.htm.

Another rather interesting opportunity ties graduate-level research through a collaboration between the Public Service Commission and the Canada School of Public Service - the area that is responsible for the development of public servants. It’s called the Students Providing Aligned Research and Knowledge (SPARK) — I’m not kidding.

It provides a mechanism for connecting graduate-level research projects directly with government departments that would be interested in the research findings. Unlike most initiatives at the federal level, this one is available to both domestic and international students.

You conduct research at your home institution, although you may need to present your findings to the sponsoring organization, in which case all travel and associated costs would be covered. You must have a professor interested in supervising the research. And you will be paid throughout the project – the amount depends on the project. Projects currently available are posted on the Research Affiliate Program (RAP) – and as new projects become available they also will be posted. Look for those projects identified as SPARK program projects.

While you’re on the Public Service Commission site, look around. There’s a lot of information there that might be interesting for those of you looking for an alternative to a viable academic career. At least those years dealing with university bureaucracies will come in handy for something!

I recently had this article brought to my attention. It’s about the ‘problem’ of master’s students (specifically in sociology) going out on a job search. One of the issues raised by the author, Scott Jaschick (one that’s equally applicable to many liberal-arts disciplines)  is the difficulty non-academics have understanding the relevance of the discipline outside the university.

Interestingly, Jaschick cites economics as a field much more transparent to outsiders than sociology. That certainly has not been my experience in the 12 years or so I have worked in a career services centre.  He attributes to Roberta Spalter-Roth,  head of research for the American Sociological Association, the rather contentious claim that “part of the problem is one of semantics, combined with the reality that many career services offices don’t know as much as would be desirable about sociology.”

Unfortunately neither Jaschik nor Spalter-Roth seem inclined to back up this statement with proof.  Nor do they adequately acknowledge the logic that that if people outside the field don’t understand the career relevancy of what it takes to earn a degree in that field, then what we have is a failure to disseminate the information rather than failure to understand it.

Over the years I have spent advising graduates from sociology, economics and virtually everything else, one observation is excruciatingly clear:  students themselves are no more aware of the breadth and depth of the skills and knowledge they have acquired at university than anyone outside their discipline.  No wonder so many balk at the job search – it’s hard to argue that you are ready, willing and able to make a meaningful contribution to the world if you have no idea what you have to offer.

If, as Jaschik’s article seems to indicate, academe is moving to a two-pronged system, offering degree paths in both academic and non-academic tracks, then universities will have to change the way they talk about their programs.  Not only must they sufficiently articulate the value of the latter outside academic fields but also they need to disseminate this information aggressively – to the public that is funding their existence and to the thousands of graduate and undergraduate students who seem to be haplessly wandering through halls of academe with no clear understanding of what will be of significance once they leave.

This is something to keep in mind if you are considering a non-academic career path. If you don’t make the value of your abilities and aptitudes explicit in qualitative terms, it is unlikely any employer will a have an accurate idea of what contribution you can make because of your academic background, not in spite of it.

‘Tis recruitment season, and with the economy leveling out after the plunge, and all indicators suggesting a bullish 2010, employers are loosening their purse strings for new hires.

If you are graduating from a master’s or doctoral program this year, and aren’t too interested in spending anymore time in academe (I know you’re reading this!), then there are a few opportunities you might want to take a closer look at. As they cross my desk I’ll post them to make them easier to find.

Remember, it’s the bigger, national organizations that have recruitment ’seasons’ where they hire a lot of entry level people all at once. Most employers in Canada have under 50 employees, so they hire throughout the year as people leave, get promoted, or new projects open up.

Bank of Canada – Offers full-time positions to graduates who would be interested in conducting leading-edge research at Canada’s central bank and, in so doing, contribute to the economic and financial well-being of the country. The Bank will be hiring graduates in economics and finance at the bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral levels.

The application deadlines are:

October 7^th, 2009 – bachelor’s graduates,
October 13^th 2009 – master’s graduates, and
November 15^th 2009 – doctoral graduates

Students can apply online and find more information about the Bank on their website at http://www.bankofcanada.ca/.

More details are available through the following links:

* Information about the Bank’s priorities and work environment
http:// http://www.bankofcanada.ca/en/hr/great.html

* Highlights of our compensation package
http://www.bankofcanada.ca/en/hr/compensation.html

Don’t forget, whether you are looking for a faculty position, or an academic administrative position (e.g. Dean, Provost) you can sign up for your own personal Job Alert through University Affairs. This is the easy way to make sure you don’t miss out on any opportunities because you just got too swamped to keep checking the postings.